Londoners watching a procession of The 1st Brigade of Guards, with massed bands, marching through the City past the Royal Exchange and Mansion House. The Brigade was marching towards Waterloo in order to return to Aldershot at the end of the General Strike, during which they were encamped at Victoria Park in Hackney, East London and London Docks. In support of a strike by coal miners over the issue of threatened wage cuts, the Trades Union Congress called a General Strike in early May 1926. The strike only involved certain key industrial sectors (docks, electricity, gas, railways) but, in the face of well-organised government emergency measures and lack of real public support, it collapsed after nine days